March, 27th 2013

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.

Washington, D.C. 20590

To Whom it May Concern,

Application for Approval of Resolution 787 by International Air Transport Association

Docket No. OST-2013-0048-0001

Qatar Airways is a premium full service airline and our product is rated of highest quality across 

the industry.

As a company, which offers a premium product we welcome and support the Resolution 787 

New Distribution Capability (NDC) by IATA. This new distribution standard will remove the 

current constraints in the legacy distribution environment, which hinders Qatar Airways in 

actively promoting our product features to the customers. With the current distribution standard 

in place we are forced to limit our product features to scheduled flight times and price only. 

Consequentially the products of all airlines appear as a commodity to the consumer reducing

our value proposition independent of additional services and features we offer.

In addition to communicating our value proposition we see a substantial benefit of NDC in the 

fact that it supports an interactive and flexible shopping experience. This will enable us to 

dynamically package our offer and put the buyer in control over what best fits their needs.

We therefore strongly support the Resolution 787 by IATA for the following reasons:

NDC will enable the distribution of distinct product features and thus allows a clear 

communication of the value proposition to the consumer.

NDC will result in more transparency for the consumer about what product they are 

purchasing. Due the interactive design NDC will support the capability for the consumer 

to compare quickly between alternative offers.

Availability of additional information about product features will inevitably result in better 

services by the airlines.

NDC will enable the airlines to market its brand pro-actively and in a targeted way, which 

results in the marketing effort to become very cost efficient and effective.

Consumers deciding to make use of the authentication capability supported by NDC will 

be able to receive offers customized to their respective needs. This will generate a winwin situation for both the airline and the consumer.
The additional product information provided as part of the NDC standard will also enable 

travel agents to much better advice and serve potential passengers.

As a global airline Qatar Airways relies heavily on the distribution via GDS. Since the 

resolution stipulates a publically available communication standard available to all 

distribution providers we see NDC as a great opportunity that the GDS will significantly 

enhance their capabilities as well. This will allow Qatar Airways to distribute our product 

features also via these channels without being impacted by their limited functionality.

Modern communication standards will allow making use of new and more efficient 

technology, which will reduce distribution cost. Lower cost will inevitably be passed on to 

the consumer and thus result in lower prices.

The XML protocol is commonly used when exchanging information across the internet. 

An open standard based on the XML protocol will make the airline product easily 

available to new distribution providers. The current communication protocols used in 

airline distribution makes it very difficult for new entrants to successfully establish a 

distribution channel. This results in a limited number of providers with a negative impact 

on cost and innovation.

The current distribution environment is based on technology developed decades ago. 

Over that period it forced airlines to implement increasingly complex processes to make 

their product available in the market. The processes for distributing schedule, fares and 

available seats are to a large extent independent using different format, timing and 

distribution providers. The cost of maintaining all the various methods and at the same 

time achieve sufficient consistency became not only a financial burden to the airlines, 

but also limits the options for innovation benefiting the consumer.

Considering the above impact on the travel industry we at Qatar Airways are convinced that 

NDC is the long-awaited step in the right direction. It will provide the basis for an interactive and 

personalize shopping experience as it is already the norm in many other industries. It will result 

in innovation by the airlines and the distribution system providers and will enable the consumer

to compare different airline products in order to make the right choice. 

Qatar Airways strongly believes that the NDC communication standard will increase competition 

and is therefore beneficial to the consumer. As a premium airline we very much interested in 

being able to communicate our value proposition to our customers. We would therefore highly 

appreciate if DOT considers our argumentation above and approves the Resolution 787 (New 

Distribution Capability).

Respectfully

Dieter Westermann

Senior Vice President

Qatar Airways

Doha, State of Qatar

+974 4430 2630